I had daydreams and fantasies when I was growing up. I always wanted to live in a log cabin at the foot of a mountain. I would ride my horse to town and pick up provisions. Then return to the cabin with a big open fire a record player and peace.

How can you consider flower power outdated? The essence of my lyrics is the desire for peace and harmony. That's all anyone has ever wanted. How could it become outdated?

No I've never wanted kids. But I do read about parenting a lot.

People have always wanted to be recognized and that's human nature. But people used to want to be recognized for their accomplishments and now they simply want to be visible.

My first two records are so simply constructed. The reason isn't because I wanted to make simple music. It's because I don't really have the chops.

Also because people like to multitask in a way if you've got a bit of music on in the background and the lyrical content is making you want to listen to it then that would probably put you off the texting you wanted to do. I think people like things that just make that right kind of noise but leave your brain free to do something else.

Pop is a little bit theatrical. That's the whole vibe. That's the point - is that it's great music great melodies great hooks. But on top of it it's a presentation. There's a showmanship about it. And that's why I wanted to be a pop star.

It's been a transformative period and I really wanted to make music from what I've experienced.

From childhood I was passionately fond of music and wanted to be a musician. I have no recollection of any real desire ever to be anything else.

I write the vocals last because I wanted to invent the music first and push the music to the level that I had to compete against it.

Before I settled on music I wanted to be an archaeologist an astronaut all sorts of really diverse things.

I'm obsessed with the countryside: woods forests fields lakes mountains. I'm really into folk music and folklore. But more so I'm into electronic music. I'm into bands that have both aspects like Boards of Canada is a perfect example. You could listen to that type of music running through a woods. It's kind of what I wanted to achieve.

People always try to find my agenda but I don't really have one. It's safe to say that I make pop but I think that I'm doing important music too. I've just always done what I wanted to do.

I'm quite private. And I never wanted to be the biggest star in the world really. So in that sense I've got a good balance of doing great shows of making an appearance every now and then and writing music and I don't really have to do much else.

I wanted to get rid of the element that had been considered essential in pop music: the voice.

It's not just the 'Grammys' that I've pulled out of. I also pulled out of the English awards as well. The reason that I wanted to pull out was because I believe very much that the music industry as a whole is mainly concerned with material success.

I started playing piano when I was 6. And I knew that wanted to be involved in that form of expression whether it was through music or acting or dancing or painting or writing.

I think I first realized I wanted to be in country music and be an artist when I was 10. And I started dragging my parents to festivals and fairs and karaoke contests and I did that for about a year before I came to Nashville for the first time. I was 11 and I had this demo CD of me singing Dixie Chicks and Leanne Rimes songs.

I wanted to prove the sustaining power of music.

I felt I really wanted to back off from music completely and just work within the visual arts in some way. I started painting quite passionately at that time.

I came into music just because I wanted the bread. It's true. I looked around and this seemed like the only way I was going to get the kind of bread I wanted.

Music makes us want to live. You don't know how many times people have told me that they'd been down and depressed and just wanted to die. But then a special song caught their ear and that helped give them renewed strength. That's the power music has.

Secretly I wanted to look like Jimi Hendrix but I could never quite pull it off.

After doing 'Firefly' and moving on I always wanted to be part of a series again. I love doing films too but there's just something special about being part of the team and feeling like you're actually a part of the family and I always look to re-create that.